How to Use Lengths of Fabric for Curtains
Curtains and drapes serve as protection from drafts and as fashionable accents to your everyday household décor. Whether created from sumptuous velvets and embroidered silks, or from simple cotton or muslin, curtains set a mood and reflect the personality of the house's owners. Curtains don't need to be traditional styles to be functional. Simple swathes of fabrics wrapped around decorative curtain rods can be just as striking as purchased curtains, and a lot less expensive. Using fabric as curtains is a good way to recycle flat bedsheets as well as use fabric yardage. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Tape measure
- Fabric - optimal 44 inches wide by 84 inches long
- Decorative curtain rod (installed)
- Curtain holders - two (optional)
- Masking tape
- Straight pins
- Scissors (optional)
- Needle & thread (optional)
Instructions
-
-
1
Place the very center of the fabric against the very center of the decorative curtain rod. You may want to measure the rod and fabric to determine the centers. Hold the middle of the fabric against the curtain rod with your left hand. Use a piece of masking tape to tape the center of the fabric to the center of the rod to "hold it" for you.
-
2
Begin with the right side of the fabric and the right side of the rod. Lift the right bottom end of the fabric up and around the curtain rod, loosely winding it from the center and continuing out to the end of the rod. You will leave approximately 18 inches of "tail" or piece of the fabric hanging over the top edge of the right end of the curtain rod.
-
-
3
Move to the left side of the fabric and curtain rod. Lift the left bottom end of the fabric up and around the curtain rod, loosely winding it from the center of the curtain rod toward the left end of the curtain rod until there is approximately 20 inches left on the left side of the fabric, hanging over the top of the left end of the curtain rod as a "tail." You can continue to wind until both "tails" are even if you prefer things evenly matched.
-
4
Secure the loosely wound fabric by inserting straight pins BEHIND the curtain rod where the pins are not visible, pinning the fabric to the fabric beneath it until the fabric is secured. You can sew stitches every few inches behind the curtain rod if you prefer this over the pins.
-
5
Remove the masking tape once the fabric has been secured with pins or has been stitched into place behind the fabric.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Longer fabric can be used to achieve long looks. Draped and wound fabric looks very striking when paired with sheer panels beneath in a coordinating or contrasting color. Long fabric can be held back by decorative curtain or swag holders screwed into the sides of the window.
Using two different types of fabric side by side is an eye-catching way to wind the curtain rod. Bunch the fabric together in your hand as you wind it around the rod and arrange the creases/folds so that both fabrics are visible. This works well with a print and a solid fabric.
Create made-to-match windows by using flat bedsheets that match your bedroom ensemble.
